Brussels, 15/03/2016 (Agence Europe) - In a provisional version of its communication to protect the European steel industry, the final version of which is to be published on Wednesday 16 March, the Commission is to announce a raft of measures to knock one month off anti-dumping investigation procedures. In connection with the possible adoption of a legislative package on modernising the trade defence instruments, the institution eventually hopes to be able to claw back two months.
In the document, of which EUROPE had sight on Tuesday 15 March, the Commission states that it plans to bring back anti-doping measures immediately, by means of all “margins” to adopt temporary measures, and making more use of written proceedings. In the event of extremely urgent situations, the temporary measures may be imposed by the Commission once it has informed the member states of this move. Additionally, the Commission undertakes to “further optimise” its internal procedures, and “follow a stricter approach when dealing with requests for deadline extensions of questionnaire responses and, where feasible, streamline hearings by grouping them together”. The Commission hopes that these actions will make it possible to gain “at least one month” in anti-dumping procedures.
In the medium term, the Commission is calling on member states to adopt the package on the revision of the trade defence instruments(TDI), at stalemate in the Council since November 2014 (see EUROPE 11175), as soon as possible. In this document, the institution identifies other issues, such as the abolition of the lesser-duty rule (see EUROPE 11481), and the rule on optimising interim deadlines (compilation by the interested parties and reactions to the disclosure of the facts). It also wishes to “substantially” speed up the consultation process of the member states. According to the Commission, this would reduce the time taken by a total of two months, bringing anti-dumping procedures down to an average of seven months. This ambition appears to correspond to the conclusions of the Dutch Presidency of the most recent Competitiveness Council (see EUROPE 11501), but is still a lot longer than the lead times on the other side of the Atlantic, which are two months on average.
The Commission is also to propose a prior monitoring system for steel products. These prior monitoring measures will be carried out through a system of automatic licences on imported products which threaten European producers.
The Commission is also planning to take action alongside its partners to tackle the causes of global overproduction directly. For instance, it will open dialogue in the framework of bilateral meetings with China, Japan, India, Russia, Turkey and the United States, and at multilateral level, in the framework of the “Steel” committee of the OECD. Lastly, the Commission plans to ask China to respect its obligations in the framework of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and hopes to raise the subject at a meeting at the WTO in June of this year ('WTO Peer-Trade Policy Review of China'). It will do the same in the framework of the G20 with specific reference to Chinese overproduction.
In line with the decisions of the extraordinary Council on the steel crisis (see EUROPE 11427), the Commission hopes to consolidate investments in research and development in the sector. This will be done principally on the basis of the European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI), the programme Horizon 2020 and the structural and investment ESI funds. It refers to various co-financed initiatives, such as the Research Fund for Coal and Steel and the ULCOS research programme on the very low-emission steel industry.
As regards the crucial question of energy, the proposal made by MEP Édouard Martin (S&D, France) to conclude contracts over the long term to offset price volatility does not appear to have been taken up (see EUROPE 11455). On this point, the Commission is proposing to make use of available European funding to encourage greater energy efficiency in the steel industry “and promote competitive energy prices by tapping into the potential of the single market and regional cooperation” in connection with the Energy Union, and will submit a report on the predictability of energy prices this summer.
Concerning the ETS quota trading system, the border carbon adjustment programme proposed by the European Parliament and supported by the French Minister of the Economy (see EUROPE 11490) also appears not to have made the cut in this version of the text. On this point, the Commission is calling on the co-legislators to make faster progress on the revision of the ETS system and to maintain a distribution of free quotas “in such a way that energy intensive industries, including the steel sector, receive an appropriate level of support and continue to reward the best performers”.
This was a provisional version of the Communication and the Commission was still carrying out consultations this Monday, according to a European source. The final version could still end up being watered down. (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)